


oh, so golden

by ballumschmallum



Category: EastEnders (TV)
Genre: M/M, ballum - Freeform, ben and callum are engaged and are fiancées!!!, ben and callum finally get their bulldog, ben x callum, in the form of a french bulldog puppy, this is so soft and fun!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-01-28
Packaged: 2021-03-14 07:55:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29042736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ballumschmallum/pseuds/ballumschmallum
Summary: It was Callum who was the one that suggested making Lexi’s dreams come true now that they had their own place. Ben was reluctant to the idea, though it made Callum shake his head in amused disbelief once Ben had warmed to the idea and watched how he started to bounce off the walls whenever Lexi was not around at the thought of welcoming a new member to their chaotic family.or ben and callum surprise lexi with a puppy
Relationships: Callum "Halfway" Highway/Ben Mitchell
Comments: 5
Kudos: 38





	oh, so golden

**Author's Note:**

  * For [callumsmitchells](https://archiveofourown.org/users/callumsmitchells/gifts).



> this is in dedication to lucy (@callumsmitchells), the happiest of birthdays to you. and what a birthday to have it fall on the day ben proposes to callum, ahhhh!! 
> 
> i hope you enjoy this little fic i wrote for you that is full of puppy love and the odd harry styles lyric here and there - the title included ;) a fic that has your name on it!
> 
> i also hope the rest of you enjoy this fic too xx

Callum was surprised that they had managed to contain this secret for nearly two months. And he was utterly surprised at Ben’s excitement that was bursting at the seams as the days got closer. 

And it wasn’t because they were getting married in the space of a couple of months either, or they had now moved into a place of their own. It was only a small house just five minutes away from the Square but it was warm, cosy and intimate and most of all, it was theirs. 

It was Callum who was the one that suggested making Lexi’s dreams come true now that they had their own place. Ben was reluctant to the idea, though it made Callum shake his head in amused disbelief once Ben had warmed to the idea and watched how he started to bounce off the walls whenever Lexi was not around at the thought of welcoming a new member to their chaotic family. A French bulldog puppy. 

Ben raised his eyebrow when Callum suggested the breed of the dog, taking them back to that moment in the car lot but his heart melted when they both visited the breeder’s home and he did not have to think about what puppy he wanted to take home. The one with the light brown coat and the ears that stood up high and flopped in all different angles. The one that instantly went over to them and jumped all over them without hesitation. The one who had fallen in love with the pair of them as much as they had fallen in love with him and it was written in his eyes that they were his home. 

“Babe!” 

Callum heard the beautiful sound of his fiancée’s voice as it bounced joyfully off the walls of their home when Ben walked in, slamming the door behind him. 

“In here!” Callum calls out from the kitchen, before swallowing a small sample on a teaspoon of his homemade chicken casserole that he is preparing for this evening’s dinner. 

When Ben walked into the kitchen, Callum stood up straight and flashed him a brilliant smile that set Ben’s heart on fire every time. A smile that was full of teeth and the most adorable dimples where an endearing smile from Ben came shooting Callum’s way. It was something auto-piloted at how Callum’s smile made Ben smile and the sun shine brighter. It was automatic. 

“You alright babe?” Callum says as Ben plants a kiss on his cheek in greeting. The feel of Ben’s soft lips and his short pleasantly rough stubble tingled on his cheek. “How was the car lot?”

“Oh, same old,” Ben sighs before he breaks out in a grin and starts swinging from side to side, dancing on one foot to another. 

Callum raised his eyebrow suspiciously, “What have you done?”

“Is Lex here yet?” Ben asks, almost giddly.

“No,” Callum frowns. “But I did just have a text from Lo, she is going to drop Lex round in ten minutes.” He affirms. Lexi was staying overnight. 

“Something arrived at the car lot,” Ben grins as he rummages through the inside pocket of his brown leather jacket. He pulls out a long white envelope. “Look what finally came,” he boasts happily as he pulls out a baby blue collar with little white clouds drawn around it. A shiny dark blue bone tag was clipped onto the middle that said: Hugo 

Ben named the bundle of love as soon as he melted into the little puppy’s eyes and Callum immediately adored the name.

Callum’s heart smiled when he saw the collar that Ben held up proudly, “It’s lovely,” he comments, his voice strangely filled with emotion. He put it down to the thought that he was getting his perfect family that he had found and helped to build. It took a lot of work but the final masterpiece is just extraordinary and beautiful. 

“I hope Lexi doesn’t mind us naming him,” Callum breathes out a laugh as he puts the casserole back in the oven for the last hour. 

“Well he will be living here with us so technically he is our dog,” Ben reasons with a cheeky smirk. 

Their dog. Their home. Their family. 

“And we’ll be doing all the training, the feeding, the dog walking,” Ben continues. Callum nods along, it all sounding so domestic, like an extract from a perfect fairytale dream. 

“What?” Callum gets shaken out of his thoughts to find that Ben had stopped talking, his eyebrow was arched and his mouth stood in a waiting grin. 

“Nothing,” Callum breathes happily. “It’s just all so exciting isn’t it.”

Ben felt like he could get lost inside those eyes as he smiled at his fiancée, filled with earnest and warmth. 

“You won’t find it exciting when you’ll be driving for two hours tomorrow morning to pick the little fella up, and two hours back,” Ben quips, allowing a playful tone to play out above them. Callum shakes his head incredulity but the smile refuses to erase from his lips. 

It was wonder, under summer skies, under every sky. 

\----------——-——

They had dropped Lexi off at school the next morning. When Lexi had cottoned on to the fact that Ben and Callum were not working today, she attempted to use her puppy dog eyes in order to get them to ring the school and call a sickie for her. However, that day Ben and Callum were far more drawn to another set of puppy dog eyes. Puppy dog eyes that were owned by this small fluffy bouncy bundle of joy.

“We have to shop for a certain madam’s birthday,” Ben says suggestively as he ruffles the small girl’s blonde hair. “And we cannot do that with her there can we?”

This made Ben internally triumphant as Lexi’s face broke out in a small cheeky grin at the mention of her birthday that was approaching in a couple of weeks. Once they had dropped Lexi off at the school gates, they made their way over to the puppy who will be granted his forever home.

It was late afternoon when Ben and Callum had finally returned to Walford. They were much longer than they anticipated due to a crash on one of the motorways which led to a complete road diversion and heavy traffic. Ben had text Lola and asked her to use the spare key that they gave her to let herself and Lexi into their house. Once they had pulled up outside their home, they both let out tired sighs. Callum’s head dropped back on the headrest of the driver’s seat. He turned his head to the side and smiled softly at the sight before his eyes. Ben was sitting in the passenger seat with the sleeping puppy curled up in his arms as he stroked behind his ears tenderly, a look of love shining in his eyes. Callum could not deny the warm swelling that overcame in his chest. 

“I guess we should get him inside,” Callum says softly as he reaches over and strokes the puppy’s head.

“Or save him for a while longer from the screaming of an 8 year old,” Ben quips as he looks briefly up at his fiancée, earning a light chuckle from Callum.

“I think this little fella can handle it,” Callum reassures him. “Plus, we don’t want Lexi coming out to us the longer we leave it.”

Ben nods, “That’s true. Come on then, is the box in the back?”

“Yeah it’s on the backseat.”

When Ben and Callum tentatively entered the house, they were carrying a large cardboard box that was padded with blankets where the puppy lay inside and the lid was left open slightly to allow some air to seep in for him. There was a large blue bow that was stuck on the lid. 

Once they had shut the front door, Lexi bounced into the hallway with Lola following behind a few moments later. She stared intrigued at the box that was clutched in Callum’s grip. 

“What’s in the box?” She asks.

Ben and Callum looked at each other with a knowing smile. Ben diverted his head downwards, indicating for Callum to put the box down on the floor.

“Why don’t you open it,” Callum suggests gently as he places the box down on the floor. “Consider it an early birthday present.”

Lexi looked up at Callum and broke out in a massive grin. She scrambled to the floor and knelt beside the box. Her body bouncing with excitement, she pulled the lid of the box away and gasped in delight as the small puppy looked up at her wagging his tail and came bouncing out of the box, climbing onto her lap and attempting to lick her face. Lexi squealed with happiness as she reached out to the puppy and touched any part that was in her reach. Ben, Callum and Lexi looked at each other and smiled as they witnessed the instant bond between the two youngest members of their family. 

“Does he have a name?” Lexi asked excitedly as she continued stroking the excited pup. 

“Read his collar,” Ben instructed with a smile, feeling pride pounding in his heart at the name he had chosen himself for the latest member. 

Lexi held the name tag of the collar in the palm of her hand. “Hugo,” she says with a smile. 

Ben nods and turns to Callum with a teasing glint in his eye and a smirk to accompany it, “That’s right...Hugo Mitchell.”

Callum looked back at Ben and just rolled his eyes and shook his head in amusement. Technically, he was the only one left to become a Mitchell now.

If you were ever told that Ben Mitchell would spend lazy mornings in bed at the weekends with his fiancée and a dog curled up in between them, you would have laughed and thought that they were lying. It was even better when Lexi stayed over and she joined them. Ben’s eyes filled with love and adoration whenever he saw Callum with their puppy, the puppy curled up on his chest and being soothed by Callum’s gentle touch. 

Ben knew if people knew about his puppy snuggles in bed with his family, the long walks in country parks at the weekends, it would ruin his ego. Though, ever since he met Callum and walked into the golden light, the sunshine shining over him for the first time in his life, his sunshine, he had started to care less and less about what people thought. He even rolled his eyes and steered playfully whenever Jay looked over his shoulder and mocked him whenever he saw his phone wallpaper. The wallpaper that was taken on the day that Hugo came to live with them, where he and Callum sat on either side of Lexi with Hugo sitting on her lap. Lexi was beaming at the camera, her eyes lighting up brighter than the flash on the phone camera, like Ben and Callum had hung up all the stars in the universe and made all her wishes come true. 

At the weekends, Ben use to be the type of man who would go out and hook up with any guy that tickled his fancy on the app he used, but now he would want nothing more than a night in with Callum, with Hugo sitting on their laps or napping in his bed or curled around a table leg, as they watched whatever rubbish that was on the telly. He never thought that he would become a proper family man, who actually thought the world of his family and they had his devotion. They had his whole heart and soul in the palm of their hands. 

He would get up early every other Sunday morning with Callum to take Hugo on a walk to the massive country park that they have grown to love. Lexi came along whenever she was staying with them and she followed Hugo with an energetic skip in her step, as he explored all the different sights and smells that nature had to tell. Hugo was very good, always stayed close by and when he went too far and felt he was out of sight, he would always turn round and come back down the path he came, just to make sure that Ben and Callum were there. They always were.

Ben and Callum were always a step behind, appreciating the life that they have together and how they wouldn’t have it any other way. It was just them and the birds singing and the white fluffy clouds creeping out behind the trees. They would hold hands and stop for the odd soft, lingering kiss. Sometimes Ben got playful and pinned Callum up against one of the trees whenever Lexi was distracted. They could get lost in the world that they had built together, they could wrap themselves in it and live in it forever. Callum being the sunshine to Ben’s storm that crackled and thundered in the darkest of times. But Callum was there, just like he always was, shining the beaming ray of light and drying all of those nightmares away. 

Even when on a fine line, they knew they would always be alright. 

“So,” Callum starts as they walk along the pathway that was in between the beautiful greenery of bushes and trees that Hugo was bouncing to explore one weekend. Their hands were entwined as their arms were swaying back and forth in a peaceful rhythm. “We have the house, the French bulldog, when do you think we should get our joint gym memberships?”

Ben snorts with laughter and nudges his shoulder against his playfully. He could not stop the wide endearing smile that was on his lips. He looks up at Callum, his eyes twinkling affectionately under the early morning’s sun, the shadows of reflections bouncing off of his face, outlining the vague freckles that were scattered over the bridge of his nose.

“Maybe once we’ve finished paying off the wedding,” Ben grins, a bold reminder that their wedding was now almost three weeks away.

“I love you,” Callum says, sincerely; the softest of looks embedded in those stunning blue eyes.

“I know,” Ben teases lightly.

Callum rolls his eyes fondly but chuckles along with him. No matter how much of a pain in the arse Ben could be at times, he was Callum’s pain in the arse. Callum removed his hand from Ben’s grip and swapped it to place it behind Ben’s head and pulling it towards him, clasping his lips in a lingering and sweet kiss. The type of kiss that leaves your lips tingling. 

Everything was beyond perfect, so golden.

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr: calsangel
> 
> kudos/comments are always so appreciated<333


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